Limitations

Pharos is intentionally narrow: it explains one known vulnerable package version inside supported JavaScript lockfiles.

Current limitations:

  • npm package-lock.json v1 parsing is not supported yet.
  • Workspace ownership is not resolved yet.
  • Package ownership is inferred only from the sibling package.json.
  • Fix suggestions rely on public npm registry metadata.
  • Private packages in a chain may not have upgrade recommendations.
  • Semver verification proves range containment, not application compatibility or installation success.
  • Override and resolution fallbacks can expose incompatibilities and must be tested.

Planned improvements include workspace ownership, pnpm and npm v1 lockfiles, and audit-report ingestion.